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Saturday, June 27, 2009

"The Powers That Be." How can you tell this will only end in violence? Let me point out some mileposts from just this week.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -- President John F. Kennedy, address to the diplomatic corps of the Latin American republics on the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, March 13, 1962. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962, p. 223.

I put up the full citation because Kennedy is often mis-quoted as having said, "change" instead of "revolution." This is not so great a stretch, since Kennedy was horribly imprecise with words, and "revolution" in America has become, and was even in 1962, a word stretched beyond its original meaning. The invention of "The Pill" was beginning a "sexual revolution" and Americans were buying cars and other products which were of "revolutionary design."

On this occasion, in fact, he misjudged his audience. None of these Latin American diplomats, many of whom had experienced violent revolution first hand, had any idea what a "peaceful revolution" looked like. State Department old-hands were said to have cringed at his characterization, and in fact, Kennedy -- an anti-communist -- was incessantly quoted in later years by many a bloody-handed Marxist guerrilla to justify all manner of things he certainly had not intended to countenance.

But for all that, Kennedy was right on the big thing, which is probably why someone took the trouble to misquote and "correct" him. Those who make peaceful change impossible, DO make violent change inevitable.

The tricky thing is to know how far down the road to violent social upheaval you are in your own society at any given time. Let me provide some recent mileposts, largely unknown and unnoted.

Milepost #1: "A repudiation of the Federal Reserve would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system."

"Helicopter Ben" Bernanke prays as he awaits extraction from his final mission. "Please don't let them find out what we're doing to them before I'm outta here."

When asked by Rep. John Duncan on Thursday about the fact that a majority of Congress is co-sponsoring Ron Paul’s HR 1207 bill to audit the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke responded:

Ben Bernanke: “My concern about the legislation is that if the GAO is auditing not only the operational aspects of the programs and the details of the programs but making judgments about our policy decisions would effectively be a takeover of policy by the Congress and a repudiation of the Federal Reserve would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the dollar and our national economic situation.”

"tmartin" commented:

While many viewers interpreted Bernanke’s statements as a “threat”, we would not rule out the possibility that he was merely stating an opinion that is indeed shared by many economists who grew up under the notion that the autonomy of the Federal Reserve and its mission to centrally manage the economy is sacrosanct and not open to debate.

Threat? Blindness? Does it matter? The Fed stands there, unchallenged, unrestrained, and absolutely opaque to even inquiry let alone oversight. And when they are swept away, finally, by events, no one will be more astonished than the central bankers themselves.

John Conyers.

Milepost #2: "The Powers That Be."

You have no doubt heard of the Obamnanoid purge of Gerald Walpin, AmeriCorp's inspector general, who was dismissed over his handling of an investigation of the mayor of Sacramento, Calif., Kevin Johnson, an Obama supporter during the presidential campaign.

This is dangerous principally because it sends the message to the regulatory agencies, especially the three-letter boys, that the executive branch will protect its own. Milepost #2 is even worse than the Walpin case.

Washington Times

June 25, 2009

Conyers abandons plan to probe ACORN

'Powers that be decided against it,' he saysBy S.A. Miller

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying "powers that be" put the kibosh on the idea.

Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, earlier bucked his party leaders by calling for hearings on accusations the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) has committed crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style "protection" racket.

"The powers that be decided against it," Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times.

The chairman declined to elaborate, shrugging off questions about who told him how to run his committee and give the Democrat-allied group a pass.

Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh, whose testimony about ACORN at a March 19 hearing on voting issues prompted Mr. Conyers to call for a probe, said she was perplexed by Mr. Conyers' explanation for his change of heart.

"If the chair of the Judiciary Committee cannot hold a hearing if he want to [then] who are the powers that he is beholden to?" she said. "Is it the leadership, is it the White House, is it contributors? Who is 'the power?'"

Capitol Hill Democrats had bristled at proposed hearings because it threatened to rekindle criticism of the financial ties and close cooperation between President Obama's campaign and ACORN and its sister organizations Citizens Services Inc. and Project Vote.

The groups came under fire during the campaign after probes into possible voter fraud in a series of presidential battleground states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico and Nevada.

ACORN and its affiliates are currently the target of at least 14 lawsuits related to voter fraud in the 2008 election and a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act complaint filed by former ACORN members.

The group's leaders have consistently denied any wrongdoing and previously said they welcomed a congressional probe. The group did not immediately respond Thursday to questions about Mr. Conyers being convinced to drop those plans.

Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers pleaded guilty this morning to conspiring to commit bribery and is free on personal bond.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said, "The defendant now stands convicted."

The one count of conspiring to commit bribery is punishable by up to five years in prison.

No sentencing date has been set.

In court, Conyers’ combative demeanor was gone, replaced by soft-spoken resignation as the judge and his staff several times asked her to speak up.

Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman U.S. Rep. John Conyers, appeared before Cohn to answer charges in connection with the wide-ranging probe of wrongdoing at Detroit city hall.

She has long been under suspicion in the Synagro Technologies bribery probe, not least because she had been a vocal opponent of the contract before suddenly switching her sentiments. She became the deciding voice in the city council’s 5-4 vote to approve the sludge-hauling deal in November 2007.

“This is not the beginning and it is certainly not the end, folks,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Andy Arena said at a news conference this morning.

Arena said the message to corrupt public officials is, “We’re coming after you.”

U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, a Detroit resident, said the city corruption probe continues, but this is the end of his office’s investigation “of Synagro-related conduct.”

It remains unclear if federal investigators are still considering Synagro charges against Sam Riddle, the ex-Conyers aide, who court documents suggest was with Conyers when she received at least one of the bribes.

Go to the link if you want more. This is why this is worse:

It is plain that if the Obamanoids want no Congressional oversight, they will get no Congtessional oversight. THEY are "The Powers That Be."

This is not only bad for the prospects of reining in Acorn and thereby preventing them from executing their part of the obvious Rahm Emanuel plan to steal the 2010 federal elections, but now the three-letters don't have to worry if a Waco happens. Oversight will be swept under the rug. This is dangerous stuff, people. And they don't understand that if the rule of law no longer protects us, it no longer protects them either. Dangerous, dangerous stuff.

Nancy "The Finger" Pelosi

Milepost #3: Nancy Pelosi fingers America -- Biggest tax increase in the history of the country passed in the middle of the night without anybody reading it.

Drudge reports 300 of the 1200 pages of Cap and Tax were dumped into the bill at 3:00AM that morning. The truth is nobody knows exactly what's in this bill. Once again our wallets will foot the bill for their ignorance.

But the all-hands-on-deck effort to protect politically vulnerable Democrats by corralling the minimum number of votes to pass the bill, 219-212, proves that there are limits to President Barack Obama's ability to use his popularity to push through his legislative agenda. Forty-four Democrats voted against the bill, while just eight Republicans crossed the aisle to back it.

The Finger again.

Despite the tough path to passage, the legislation is a significant win for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) and the bill’s two main sponsors – House Energy and Commerce committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) and Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey (D) – who modified the bill again and again to get skeptical members from the Rust Belt, the oil-producing southeast and rural Midwest to back the legislation.

“We passed transformational legislation which takes us into the future,” Pelosi said at a press conference following the vote, after she and other leaders took congratulatory phone calls from Obama, former Vice President Al Gore and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“It has been an incredible six months, to go from a point where no one believed we could pass this legislation to a point now where we can begin to say that we are going to send president Obama to Copenhagen in December as the leader of the of the world on climate change,” said Markey, referring to world climate talks scheduled this winter.

After months of negotiations, 211 Democrats and eight Republicans voted for the bill of more than 1,200 pages, setting the legislation on a path towards the Senate. There, it faces a far more uncertain future given the opposition of key moderates and the already-heated battle over health care.

“The reality is that the bill before the House today imposes what could be the largest tax increase in history on the American people. And every single one of us who heats a home, drives a car, and manufactures or consumes products made in America will pay the price. Estimates are that the Waxman-Markey bill will raise electricity prices by an astounding 90 percent. It will raise gasoline prices by 74 percent. It will raise the average American family's energy bill by $1,500 each year. And, far from creating jobs, experts predict that the global warming bill will destroy 1,105,000 jobs on average each year, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by over 2,479,000 jobs. All in all, the bill is expected to reduce our gross domestic production (GDP) by $9.6 trillion. And for what?"

The Finger is more powerful than Newt.

Of course if Newt had been able to keep his johnson in his pants in the 90s, and not given the Clintons an issue to blackmail him over and put himself on the political defensive, he might have been in a position (Speaker of the House) to guide policy in the 2000-2008 time frame and could have acted as a restraint on Bush, thereby short-circuiting Obama's presidential aspirations.

The dangerous thing here is not that they are sacrificing any chance of prosperity in the middle of a recession with a bill that attempts to suspend the laws of economics. The dangerous thing IS THAT THEY THINK THEY CAN DO IT AND GET AWAY WITH IT. Why? See Milepost #4.

The president tells lawmakers at a White House meeting he wants to overhaul the system by early next year. But how to regulate the future influx of foreign workers emerges as a sticking point.

By Peter Wallsten June 26, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama told congressional lawmakers Thursday that he would push for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration system by early next year. But during the White House meeting, a new political obstacle came into view: how to regulate the future influx of foreign workers.

The issue was raised by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a principal architect of past attempts to rewrite immigration laws. McCain challenged Obama and other Democrats to stand up to labor unions that are pushing a plan business groups fear could be overly restrictive in admitting future immigrant workers.

"I would expect the president of the United States to put his influence on the unions in order to change their position," McCain said after the hourlong session, which included Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, senior White House officials and about 30 lawmakers from both parties.

The White House had been taking pains to foster the impression that the senator would be a partner in striking a deal. Obama sat directly beside McCain, his former campaign rival, during the meeting. And the president praised the senator in his public remarks, saying McCain had "already paid a significant political cost for doing the right thing."

Still, Obama offered no commitments on how to handle future immigrant workers, and White House officials said the meeting was not meant to be a forum for policy details.

Obama did offer his firmest pledge yet as president to push aggressively for legislation by the end of this year or early 2010, according to meeting participants. The president had been reluctant to offer a timeline. As his administration in recent weeks focused its attention on healthcare and energy, some Latino leaders and immigrant advocates cautioned that delaying on immigration could anger Latino voters who turned out strongly for Obama in last year's election.

"What I'm encouraged by," Obama said, "is that after all the overheated rhetoric and the occasional demagoguery on all sides around this issue, we've got a responsible set of leaders sitting around the table who want to actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing right now."

Obama said that his administration was "fully behind" an immigration overhaul, and that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would spearhead the effort.

One major sticking point is whether the House would pass one of the key provisions demanded by advocates for immigrants -- a pathway to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the country. About 40 House Democrats represent conservative swing districts where there is little support for the idea.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told reporters Thursday that "the votes aren't there" to pass such a plan.

But it was clear Thursday that regulating the future flow of foreign workers was emerging as a partisan point of contention.

Past plans included a temporary guest worker program that was supported both by business groups and immigrant advocates. But many labor unions were wary of that plan. Some union members have argued that guest workers drive down wages and displace American workers.

This year, immigrant advocates and unions pulled together to propose that an independent commission study labor market needs and decide how many immigrant workers should be allowed into the country.

The commission plan has drawn opposition from business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and McCain on Thursday left no room for compromise in opposing it.

Ana Avendano, the AFL-CIO's point person on the issue, said the unions did not intend to give up.

"Just because McCain said no [on Thursday] doesn't mean we're not going to continue pushing policies that are good for working people in the United States," she said.

Democrats indicated that they are open to compromise in order to bring McCain and other Republicans aboard. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of a Senate committee on immigration, said that "both parties, left and right, are going to have to give in some to get immigration reform." If it is not passed by next year, he added, "we might not be able to do it for a generation."

Now note, the dispute here is not over amnesty and citizenship, it's over whether the AFL-CIO is made happy or not. Horse crap. The AFL-CIO will get screwed in the end and here's why. Here's the deal, the real politik, of this.

The Dems need miliions of new loyal voters to sustain them in the 2010 election. Amnesty is the only place they can get them. And I can hear all you open borders liberatarians tuning up your tiny violins now. When are you going to get this through your thick heads?

This isn't about economics, or free markets, or whatever.

It is exclusively about power.

Invite 10 to 15 million new voters into the American welfare state and you've got a permanent majority. What chance do you think you have of getting libertarian ideas across to THAT crowd? By the time they wise up, it will be too late.

Face it. With these milestones we have passed just this week alone, the chances we have of getting out of this with our liberty and property intact without violence is somewhere between slim and none.

So, that's what they've done to you this week. What are you doing to stop them?

14 comments:

How can you tell? The same way everyone knows and believes that the sun will come up tomorrow. Nobody doubts that it will happen. If these past few months of government "help" were to take place in most any other country my guess is we would not even be talking about it still. Even the iranians are standing up to their thug dictators. What the HELL is the matter with us?

I have to disagree with your contempt for the libertarian position on borders ..... open borders (which is what libertarians want) is not the same thing as open citizenship (which is what we practically have now).

For some reason (probably a combination of ignorance and media complicity), the left-fascists have gotten, are getting, and in the future will get a free pass. By that I mean there is too little scrutiny of the massive programs of the left-fascists.

I have no idea how to oppose such deep rooted fascism. To me, it started so very long ago with the federal collection of income tax and FDR's Socialist Security. It's just on a breathless course now.

I think California is a canary in the coal mine of what is going happen economically nationally. The government will tax and spend right up to the point of disaster, where taxation just does not work anymore. The Feds, though, can and will print money--so get ready for hyper-inflation and/or a collapse of the monetary system.

My meager brain says: get in shape, get out of the cities, become self-sufficient, don't trust money, just commodities, and of course, God (Yahweh).

And be patient. It could easily take another 15 years for collapse to happen. Long time to wait in the woods . . .

Anon says,"Personally, I think everyone realizes it is a done deal and they are just conserving their energy until the smackdown comes."

Exactly. King Obama murdered capitalism when he negated investment contracts, and gave priority to his union supporters. Bold fraud in broad daylight and he got away with it. Capitalism is bleeding out in the gutter, and there is no saving it.

"Invite 10 to 15 million new voters into the American welfare state ..."

Libertarians, whether small-L or big-L, don't care about immigration because they know it's a red herring. You, Mike, hit the nail on the head right there (above) even if you didn't realize it.

The 'problem' is that we have a welfare state, NOT that we have immigration.

The first revolution was fought over 'taxation without representation'; the next, mark my words, will be fought over 'representation without taxation': the idea that you can vote and control the country even if you live off the largesse of other voters.

That and that alone is what is at the heart of our problems. All the other 'problems' you think we have come right back to that one. If you can go through life relaxing and still be considered a 'valuable citizen', why go to all that effort?

Almost all of us here, I'd bet big bux, are Americans because our ancestors were immigrants. But they didn't immigrate into a welfare state. In the words of Mary Chapin Carpenter, everything we got, we got The Hard Way. That is the -only- road to a free and prosperous America.

Alas, I'm convinced we will have to impact hard on the bottom... a 'cratering event'... before most Americans wake up to that fact. Keep your powder dry.

There is good reason to be depressed by the successes of the collectivists, but the Constitution and the Republic will be restored much faster this way. They are helping us, really. Imagine the world to come. A man is valued by his hard work and his pragmatic rational ideas. Morality and truth and worship of the Creator is suddenly . . . normal and welcomed. (I do not envision a theocracy here. Restoration of the Constitution and the Republic is what I live for.)

rexxhead says,"The 'problem' is that we have a welfare state, NOT that we have immigration.

The first revolution was fought over 'taxation without representation'; the next, mark my words, will be fought over 'representation without taxation': the idea that you can vote and control the country even if you live off the largesse of other voters."

I have never before seen such a succinct and eloquent wording of that issue. Pure brilliance!

So many optimists.Highly unlikely that the Republic will be restored in the next 50 years, if ever. Between the old fashion Stalinist and the growing Muslim Fascists, Darkness is coming and it will be a long time before it is dispelled, if ever. Too many people are mesmerized by the "Bread and Circuses" aspect of things. Not enough will to make the hard decisions.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.